6/23 There are several ways these women writers express their political ideology in their poetry. For Elizabeth Barrett Browning, she gives a social voice to those who do not have one. In her poem “The Cry of the Children,” she creates a dialogue between herself, as a representative and observer of her society, and the children being exploited under the use of child labor. Her first stanza is a call to listen for her “brothers,” “Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers…” (ln 1). The stanza continues describing the “young” of all the other creatures playing” and “chirping” and “bleating,” but the young children are “weeping bitterly!/ They are weeping in the playtime of the others,/ In the country of the free” (lns. 10-12). She continues to highlight the continues under which their lives are determined, but she weighs them down with the adult sorrow of their lives without the carefreeness and happiness of youth. She shows that the burden they carry of “adult” labor has cost them their innocence: “They know the grief of man, without its wisdom;/ They sink in man’s despair without its calm;/ Are slaves, without the liberty in Christdom,/ Are martyrs, by the pang without the palm:/ Are worn as if with age, yet unretrievingly/ The harvest of its memories cannot reap,-“ (lns 141-146). By creating this dialogue between herself, her society and the children being exploited, she is giving them a social “voice.” She is forcing society to hear their “weeping.” In this way, she is creating a moment of visibility for the invisible children who are seen as nothing but a part of the factory machine. EBB does this again in “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point.” This time the voice of the poem comes directly through the perspective of the woman who is enslaved. By doing this she humanizes the woman for her reader. The topic of the poem is heart wrenching. The slave woman, categorized as such because she is black. The blackness is the reason for her oppression, yet she says God “had made dark things/ To be glad and merry as light:/ There’s a little dark bird sits and sings,/ There’s a dark stream ripples out of sight,/ And the dark frogs chant in the safe morass…” (lns. 29-33). And all of these “dark” things are permitted a voice to “sing” and “ripple” and “chant.” Not only do we have the comparison of the slave to other “dark” things that are of nature, but that these “dark” things are permitted a voice. Having a voice verifies an existence. Here, again, the poet crafts a voice of “nature” for those who are denied one by law. The poem continues with the loss of the man she loves and how they were separated because they “had not claim to love and bliss” (ln. 93). The turning point in the poem is where she is raped and births a white child: “My own, own child!/ I could not bear/ To look in his face, it was so white” (Lns 120-121). She cannot bear to look at the child, this product of her violation, this denial of her agency. And even worse, she will not “dare” to sing to it, and by singing the mother’s song, claim the child as her own. The most powerful part in the poem, in my opinion, is when she compares her situation to that of white mothers: “Yes, but she/ May keep live babies on her knee,/ And sing the song she likes the best” (lns. 215-217). The white mother can hold her babies safely to her body while the slave mother’s children are only safe buried in the ground under the mango trees. Browning continues to further compare the hypocrisy of slavery to the political ideology of the United States: “Ye are born of the Washington-race,/ And this is land is the free America,/ And this mark on my wrist…/Ropes tied me up here to the flogging-place” (lns 221-224). American freedom is a very different experience depending on which end of the rope and lash one is on. She ends her poem on this political stance, highlighting the contradictions “Of liberty’s exquisite pain” (ln. 249), and the voice of the slave woman is once again silent. Browning frames the poems through the perspective of her subjects to bring the proximity of the reader closer, to remove the distance between the reader and the political issues at hand. The reader is unable to return to a place of “unknowing” and blissful ignorance. She forces her readers to take action even if it is just in the action of hearing the voices of those silenced by oppression.
There are several ways these women writers express their political ideology in their poetry. For Elizabeth Barrett Browning, she gives a social voice to those who do not have one. In her poem “The Cry of the Children,” she creates a dialogue between herself, as a representative and observer of her society, and the children being exploited under the use of child labor. Her first stanza is a call to listen for her “brothers,” “Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers…” (ln 1). The stanza continues describing the “young” of all the other creatures playing” and “chirping” and “bleating,” but the young children are “weeping bitterly!/ They are weeping in the playtime of the others,/ In the country of the free” (lns. 10-12). She continues to highlight the continues under which their lives are determined, but she weighs them down with the adult sorrow of their lives without the carefreeness and happiness of youth. She shows that the burden they carry of “adult” labor has cost them their innocence: “They know the grief of man, without its wisdom;/ They sink in man’s despair without its calm;/ Are slaves, without the liberty in Christdom,/ Are martyrs, by the pang without the palm:/ Are worn as if with age, yet unretrievingly/ The harvest of its memories cannot reap,-“ (lns 141-146). By creating this dialogue between herself, her society and the children being exploited, she is giving them a social “voice.” She is forcing society to hear their “weeping.” In this way, she is creating a moment of visibility for the invisible children who are seen as nothing but a part of the factory machine.
EBB does this again in “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point.” This time the voice of the poem comes directly through the perspective of the woman who is enslaved. By doing this she humanizes the woman for her reader. The topic of the poem is heart wrenching. The slave woman, categorized as such because she is black. The blackness is the reason for her oppression, yet she says God “had made dark things/ To be glad and merry as light:/ There’s a little dark bird sits and sings,/ There’s a dark stream ripples out of sight,/ And the dark frogs chant in the safe morass…” (lns. 29-33). And all of these “dark” things are permitted a voice to “sing” and “ripple” and “chant.” Not only do we have the comparison of the slave to other “dark” things that are of nature, but that these “dark” things are permitted a voice. Having a voice verifies an existence. Here, again, the poet crafts a voice of “nature” for those who are denied one by law. The poem continues with the loss of the man she loves and how they were separated because they “had not claim to love and bliss” (ln. 93). The turning point in the poem is where she is raped and births a white child: “My own, own child!/ I could not bear/ To look in his face, it was so white” (Lns 120-121). She cannot bear to look at the child, this product of her violation, this denial of her agency. And even worse, she will not “dare” to sing to it, and by singing the mother’s song, claim the child as her own. The most powerful part in the poem, in my opinion, is when she compares her situation to that of white mothers: “Yes, but she/ May keep live babies on her knee,/ And sing the song she likes the best” (lns. 215-217). The white mother can hold her babies safely to her body while the slave mother’s children are only safe buried in the ground under the mango trees.
Browning continues to further compare the hypocrisy of slavery to the political ideology of the United States: “Ye are born of the Washington-race,/ And this is land is the free America,/ And this mark on my wrist…/Ropes tied me up here to the flogging-place” (lns 221-224). American freedom is a very different experience depending on which end of the rope and lash one is on. She ends her poem on this political stance, highlighting the contradictions “Of liberty’s exquisite pain” (ln. 249), and the voice of the slave woman is once again silent. Browning frames the poems through the perspective of her subjects to bring the proximity of the reader closer, to remove the distance between the reader and the political issues at hand. The reader is unable to return to a place of “unknowing” and blissful ignorance. She forces her readers to take action even if it is just in the action of hearing the voices of those silenced by oppression.